Excellent points. I like your analogy of economic power to nuclear power.
We’ve already seen Musk throwing his economic weight around like a nation, threatening to turn Starlink on and off over war zones based on his own needs, and not the national security of any of the nations involved.
When Sociopathic Oligarchs with Hoarding OCD, start accumulating such economic power that they can compete with nations, then they have reached their limit. It will only get worse, as more and more of them start negotiating their own deals, possibly to the detriment of the very nation of which they are a citizen.
Then it’s only a matter of time before these Oligarchs start building private Armies, and then form alliances that can really throw their weight around. Or worse, start wars with each other over private beefs, that catch innocent citizens in their crossfire.
These things are easily predictable, if something isn’t done to blunt the power of these out-of-control fortunes. Otherwise, we will be sitting here in the not-so-distant future, wondering why we didn’t do something about these psychopaths when we had the chance.
it’s only a matter of time before these Oligarchs start building private Armies
Just to be clear, this is why governments exist. Not to stop people from building armies because it’s bad. But to avoid the waste that comes from economic competition becoming militarized.
Bezos and Musk both make more money by NOT engaging in warfare with each other. But if warfare between them would give them an edge, then the government is the structure they create with other capitalists to rejigger the incentives so that Tesla doesn’t start bombing Amazon.
Bombing is a waste of capital.
But of course there’s the corollary - if Musk and Bezos get richer not bombing each other, then they could probably get more richer if they joined forces and bombed other people.
And that’s what the US military and CIA do. They are the military arm of the capitalists, so there is no need for private militaries. The capitalists all get together and bomb people not part of their in-group as a way of making themselves richer.
If the people of the US manage to gum up the works and stop the military from maximizing profit for the capitalists, then the capitalists will form private militaries and coordinate them to maximize their profits by bombing people not in their in-group. Today that means periphery, 3rd world, and socialist countries. Tomorrow that could mean the technologists against the financialists.
The OCD that drives them to hoard vast amounts of money, also makes them control freaks. They aren’t going to wait for the government to do their job and protect anyone from anyone. They are actively weakening America, and other countries, just so the governments will be corrupt enough for the Psychopathic Oligarchs to bribe their way to anything they want, but still be too weak for the govt to fight back when they finally realize they’ve created a monster.
And eventually, after they all have trillions of dollars, with trillions more pouring in, it won’t be about making more money, it will be about taking the other guys’ money. By then, governments will be irrelevant, and we will be back to monarchies, and the expense didn’t keep the old European kings from warring with each other.
Stop psychologizing the present day oligarchs in a vacuum. It’s not about the government protecting anyone.
This is the definition of government.
The reason oligarchs don’t have an incentive to build private armies over the last several centuries is because competing with other oligarchs through warfare DESTROYS CAPITAL.
It’s not about protection. It’s about waste. It’s less wasteful to win Bezos yacht in court than it is to bomb it and sink it to the bottom of the sea.
Excellent points. I like your analogy of economic power to nuclear power.
We’ve already seen Musk throwing his economic weight around like a nation, threatening to turn Starlink on and off over war zones based on his own needs, and not the national security of any of the nations involved.
When Sociopathic Oligarchs with Hoarding OCD, start accumulating such economic power that they can compete with nations, then they have reached their limit. It will only get worse, as more and more of them start negotiating their own deals, possibly to the detriment of the very nation of which they are a citizen.
Then it’s only a matter of time before these Oligarchs start building private Armies, and then form alliances that can really throw their weight around. Or worse, start wars with each other over private beefs, that catch innocent citizens in their crossfire.
These things are easily predictable, if something isn’t done to blunt the power of these out-of-control fortunes. Otherwise, we will be sitting here in the not-so-distant future, wondering why we didn’t do something about these psychopaths when we had the chance.
Just to be clear, this is why governments exist. Not to stop people from building armies because it’s bad. But to avoid the waste that comes from economic competition becoming militarized.
Bezos and Musk both make more money by NOT engaging in warfare with each other. But if warfare between them would give them an edge, then the government is the structure they create with other capitalists to rejigger the incentives so that Tesla doesn’t start bombing Amazon.
Bombing is a waste of capital.
But of course there’s the corollary - if Musk and Bezos get richer not bombing each other, then they could probably get more richer if they joined forces and bombed other people.
And that’s what the US military and CIA do. They are the military arm of the capitalists, so there is no need for private militaries. The capitalists all get together and bomb people not part of their in-group as a way of making themselves richer.
If the people of the US manage to gum up the works and stop the military from maximizing profit for the capitalists, then the capitalists will form private militaries and coordinate them to maximize their profits by bombing people not in their in-group. Today that means periphery, 3rd world, and socialist countries. Tomorrow that could mean the technologists against the financialists.
The OCD that drives them to hoard vast amounts of money, also makes them control freaks. They aren’t going to wait for the government to do their job and protect anyone from anyone. They are actively weakening America, and other countries, just so the governments will be corrupt enough for the Psychopathic Oligarchs to bribe their way to anything they want, but still be too weak for the govt to fight back when they finally realize they’ve created a monster.
And eventually, after they all have trillions of dollars, with trillions more pouring in, it won’t be about making more money, it will be about taking the other guys’ money. By then, governments will be irrelevant, and we will be back to monarchies, and the expense didn’t keep the old European kings from warring with each other.
Stop psychologizing the present day oligarchs in a vacuum. It’s not about the government protecting anyone.
This is the definition of government.
The reason oligarchs don’t have an incentive to build private armies over the last several centuries is because competing with other oligarchs through warfare DESTROYS CAPITAL.
It’s not about protection. It’s about waste. It’s less wasteful to win Bezos yacht in court than it is to bomb it and sink it to the bottom of the sea.